For cybersecurity professionals, this focus on protecting privacy means that their concerns, and budget requests, are now getting attention from senior executives and corporate boards. Data security is now moving to the top of the agenda, with companies paying more attention to getting a handle on what data they have, how to encrypt it, rolling out more granular access controls, and upgrading monitoring and auditing capabilities.

Privacy and security go hand-in-hand, says Shahryar Shaghaghi, national leader of the cybersecurity and privacy practice at CohnReznick LLP. “There is no security implementation without a privacy consideration, and vice-versa,” he says. “If you’re talking about access controls, you’re talking about both topics. If you’re talking about encrypting and protecting data, you’re talking about both topics. If you’re talking about monitoring data, you’re talking about both topics.”